DVD Corner

Solitary Man DVD Review

“Solitary Man” is a meandering film with fine performances by the cast.

The story: Ben, a formerly wealthy womanizer, sees his life falling apart. He’s out of work, his relationship with his family is strained, and he seems to be burning all his bridges with friends and lovers. Simply put, Ben is having a mid-life crisis. Can he get his life together?

One would think that a film with a strong cast containing Michael Douglas, Jenna Fischer, Mary-Louise Parker, Olivia Thirby, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, and Jesse Eisenberg would be at the very least be fairly engaging, but unfortunately, the cast is (for the most part) wasted here. The film almost solely focuses on Michael Douglas’s character (Ben) which is a problem because the character is a flat-out jerk that you could care less about. Usually, when you watch a film about a character trying to find himself and pull his life together, you want to care about and root for that character. Ben is not that character. He’s a selfish, whiney, sexist jackass.

On the subject of Ben, I can’t quite understand all the praise for Michael Douglas here. Yes, it’s a good adult role for Douglas and he does the part well, but the character itself is pretty straight forward. I, for one, was much more impressed by his recent quirky character in the criminally underrated “King Of California” because it showed Douglas in a light we haven’t seen him in before. In ‘Solitary,’ we basically see shades of his Gordon Gekko character from “Wall Street” mixed with the Grady Tripp character from “Wonder Boys.”

Video/Audio:

The 2.35:1 widescreen picture quality is noteworthy. It’s a good, clear transfer. Not much more to say about it than that.

There’s not much going on with this Dolby Digital 5.1 track aside from dialogue and some music. With that said, the track does its job well, it just doesn’t have much to do.

Extras:
* Anchor Bay trailers (including a “Solitary Man”).
* “Solitary Man: Alone In A Crowd”- A standard featurette with interviews, set footage, and discussions about the story/characters.
* Commentary by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Douglas McGrath. A decent commentary that covers everything from actors and shooting locations to Johnny Cash and characters, etc.

September 16, 2010 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Douglas, Solitary Man DVD Review